Planting: Step By Step

Here's how we do it at Ubu, step by step:


  1. Fill your container with 4 to 12 inches of soil, leaving at least two inches at the top for water.
  2. Work some water into the soil until you’ve got a pot of mud.
  3. With your hand, carve a groove into the mud about the size of your lotus rhizome, starting at the side of the pot and extending into the middle.
  4. Nestle the rhizome into the groove with the growing tips positioned upward. The cut end should point toward the side of the pot and the growing end toward the center. 
  5. Gently push the mud around the sides. The rhizome should be partially buried with the growing tips exposed.
  6. [Optional] Anchor your rhizome in place with some U-shaped object. A bent stretch of wire, a broken piece of pottery, a landscaping clip. Or, use a carefully placed rock at the cut end of the rhizome. Do not scrape or puncture the rhizome and do not make contact with the growing tips. The anchor should only be tight enough to keep the rhizome from floating up, which can happen after a heavy rain, or as the soil in your pot settles. 
  7. Fill the pot with about an inch of water. Hold your hand, palm up, under the stream of water and pour slowly so that you disturb the soil as little as possible.
  8. DO NOT fertilize yet. See feeding instructions here.
  9. As the first leaves emerge you can add more water. Bring it up to at least 2 inches of water over the soil. Do not exceed 19 inches for a mature plant. Smaller varieties require lower levels of water.

Next Steps

The first growth on your lotus will be small leaves that float on the surface of the water. These are your “coin” leaves.

After about a week, you will get your first “aerial leaf.” It will grow on a stiffer stem and rise above the water. At this point you will start fertilizing. You will have many leaves before you see a bud. And then begins the agonizing wait for it to open. 


Next: Fertilizing